I've never thought that English being a widely spoken language was much of an excuse for our education system failing to effectively teach us another one.
Its a fact of life and to a great extent cultural, our language is also massively acquisitive.
Its success as a world language stems from its ability to add loan words and phrases from cultures around the world. Unlike the academic French for example who devote their time keeping French pure.
Our language does have foibles but compared to say its Germanic roots its much easier to learn.
I just think that we have a remarkable language and it surprises me not one bit that because of the supremacy of English as a spoken language throughout the world, we don't have a culture of learning other languages.
Good point about the French, although like most countries it is governments rather than individuals to blame. They have a stupidly large chip on their shoulder about English...
sralan - glad you get where I am coming from, bloody annoying, isn,t it!
Stu, would you agree that in terms of grammar Mandarin is far easier than English?
My Mandarin is far from good, I've got to grips with a few phrases and questions but so far yes, I'd agree.
What makes it much harder is every single word has its own tone, the same word, with different tones can have 4-5 totally different meanings. It really is crazy. We stress words for emphasis in a sentance, in Mandarin every single word is stressed because that's how the language works.
Basically most forms of entertainment such as Films or Music are made using the English language, so people in other Countries can benefit from understanding it. Obviously it helps enormously that Americans speak a form of English.
Where I criticise us, including me, is when we visit a foreign country and don't make any effort to learn basic phrases, mind you in my own defence I can get two cups of coffee anywhere I go. You just speak slowly and clearly !
ALGARVEADDICK..... yes, you are right. We English have the ability to grasp what foreigners are trying to say unlike in some countries. The French are just the French and are renown for being totally unhelpful and while I was living and working in Slovakia I tried to learn the language but gave up in the end owing to peoples inability to comprehend what I was trying to say, even though I may have got one word wrong in the sentence and the rest correct or a mispronunciation with one word.Just got a blank look and a shrug of the shoulders.
Everyone should just speak the same language............as long as it's English;-)
Whatever happened to Esperanto?
Esperanto estas OK sed sonoro stulta kiam vi paroli.
I'm more of a Volapük man myself.
Dave, pourquoi tu choisis Volapük? C'est trop bien connu... la langue de l'avenir c'est Kobaïan.
Comments
Good point about the French, although like most countries it is governments rather than individuals to blame. They have a stupidly large chip on their shoulder about English...
sralan - glad you get where I am coming from, bloody annoying, isn,t it!
(What is up with quoting for ffs, not even quoting myself.)
What makes it much harder is every single word has its own tone, the same word, with different tones can have 4-5 totally different meanings. It really is crazy. We stress words for emphasis in a sentance, in Mandarin every single word is stressed because that's how the language works.
Basically most forms of entertainment such as Films or Music are made using the English language, so people in other Countries can benefit from understanding it. Obviously it helps enormously that Americans speak a form of English.
Where I criticise us, including me, is when we visit a foreign country and don't make any effort to learn basic phrases, mind you in my own defence I can get two cups of coffee anywhere I go. You just speak slowly and clearly !
Dave, pourquoi tu choisis Volapük? C'est trop bien connu... la langue de l'avenir c'est Kobaïan.
A samedi,
Long John